2008 UEFA Champions League final

Did You Know?

• Manchester United and Chelsea had played each other 150 times before the final, but had never met in European competition due to historical restrictions on entries from the same country.
• The Luzhniki Stadium had previously hosted the 1999 UEFA Cup final, in which Parma beat Marseille 3–0.
• Because of the time zone difference, the match kicked off at 22:45 Moscow Time, making it the first Champions League final to start on one day and finish on the next.

Route to the final

Manchester United were placed in Group F with Roma, Sporting CP and Dynamo Kyiv. They won their first five group matches, beginning with a 1–0 victory in Lisbon against Sporting via a Cristiano Ronaldo header, followed by a 1–0 home win over Roma. Back-to-back 4–2 and 4–0 wins against Dynamo Kyiv followed, and United secured top spot with a 2–1 home win over Sporting in the fifth game. The final group match, a 1–1 draw in Rome, featured a goal from Gerard Piqué and an equaliser by Mancini; both teams had already qualified.

United finished with 16 points, the highest total among group winners. In the first knockout round, United drew 1–1 away to Lyon, with a late equaliser from Carlos Tevez, then won the home leg 1–0 via a Ronaldo goal for a 2–1 aggregate victory. The quarter-finals paired United with Roma again, marking the fifth and sixth meetings between the clubs in just over 12 months. United won the first leg in Rome 2–0 with a header from Ronaldo and a tap-in from Wayne Rooney, then secured the tie with a 1–0 home win, their 11th consecutive home Champions League victory.

The semi-final opponents were Barcelona; the teams had identical records of eight wins and two draws in ten games, scoring 18 goals and conceding five. The first leg at Camp Nou ended 0–0 after Ronaldo missed a first-minute penalty. The second leg at Old Trafford was won 1–0 by United thanks to a 14th-minute goal from Paul Scholes, extending their home winning streak to 12 and sending them to the final unbeaten.

Pre-match

UEFA commissioned a unique design for the final, inspired by Moscow's cultural heritage, which was announced on 31 October 2007 at the Luzhniki Stadium with former Russian goalkeeper Rinat Dasayev as ambassador. The design used deep red and gold colours, reflecting Red Square, the Kremlin and Moscow's cathedral domes, and featured the Moscow skyline, the Champions League logo and trophy in a Russian artistic style with Cyrillic-like script. The Luzhniki Stadium's capacity was reduced to 69,500 for the final.

Approximately 21,000 tickets were reserved for each finalist, with 10,500 available to the general public via a UEFA online ballot that ran from 28 February to 19 March 2008; about 125,000 applications were received. Tickets were priced at €80, €140 and €200. Manchester United allocated its tickets to Executive Seat Holders and Season Ticket Holders who had applied for at least one away Champions League match from the group stage to the quarter-finals; Chelsea opened applications to all club members and season ticket holders.

Manchester United chief executive David Gill expressed disappointment at the 21,000 allocation, saying the club could have sold up to 100,000 tickets. United sold its entire allocation, while UEFA's William Gaillard stated that Chelsea still had up to a couple of thousand unsold tickets the day before the match, contrary to claims by Chelsea's chief operations officer Ron Gourlay.

Match

The first major incident came after 21 minutes when Paul Scholes and Claude Makélélé clashed in the air, both receiving bookings and Scholes requiring treatment for a bloody nose. In the 26th minute, Scholes and Wes Brown exchanged passes on the right flank, allowing Brown to cross for Cristiano Ronaldo, who headed past Petr Čech; it was the first time United had scored in the first half of a European final and the first time Chelsea had trailed in any of their three final appearances.

Chelsea nearly equalised in the 33rd minute when Frank Lampard's cross was headed back by Didier Drogba, forcing Rio Ferdinand to head towards his own goal under pressure from Michael Ballack, but Edwin van der Sar made a one-handed save. United pressed for a second goal and had two chances denied by a double save from Čech, first from Carlos Tevez's header and then from Michael Carrick's shot. Chelsea equalised in the final minute of the first half: Michael Essien's long-range shot deflected off Nemanja Vidić and then Ferdinand, causing Van der Sar to lose his footing, and Lampard finished from close range.

Lampard pointed to the sky in memory of his mother, who had died a month earlier. At half-time, Sir Alex Ferguson confronted referee Micheľ, jabbing a finger and speaking angrily. The second half and most of extra time passed without further goals, but four minutes from the end of extra time, Drogba was sent off for slapping Vidić. The match went to a penalty shoot-out, where Ronaldo missed United's third kick, giving John Terry the chance to win for Chelsea, but his shot hit the post as he slipped. Van der Sar saved Nicolas Anelka's seventh kick for Chelsea, securing a 6–5 shoot-out victory for United.

Post-match

John Terry was consoled by manager Avram Grant after missing the decisive penalty. Manchester United players formed a guard of honour for Chelsea as they walked through to collect their medals. Didier Drogba, sent off during the match, did not collect his medal; it was given to Grant, who later tossed his own medal into the crowd. Bobby Charlton, a survivor of the Munich air disaster and captain of United's 1968 European Cup-winning side, led the United team up to receive their medals as a club director.

UEFA President Michel Platini presented commemorative plaques and medals to both Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon and Charlton, but Charlton declined his medal and later donated it to the club museum. Platini then presented the trophy to Rio Ferdinand, who was team captain for the match, and Ryan Giggs, standing in for injured club captain Gary Neville; they lifted it together. Sir Alex Ferguson said his side deserved to win despite Chelsea's stronger second-half performance, and noted the historical significance of the victory coming 40 years after United's first European Cup and 50 years after the Munich air disaster.

He called it the first penalty shoot-out he had ever won as a manager, having lost three with Aberdeen and three with United. Ferguson later apologised to Park Ji-sung for not including him in the matchday squad. Ronaldo expressed relief at the shoot-out win, saying it would have been the worst day of his life if they had lost, and stated he was going to stay at the club, quashing speculation about a transfer to Real Madrid.